Yee-haw! This sort of thing reminds of the good old blogging days, when I used to hop on a media-bias scandal and ride it until it broke.
Yesterday I twittered about a Sacramento Bee editorial, in which the paper unleased a rant against Californians for daring to vote against tax hikes (which I voted against). I wrote, “Highly snarky and condescending SacBee editorial about us stupid CA voters rejecting higher taxes…”
Lots of people railed against the editorial, including Rush Limbaugh. Apparently unwilling to stand by what it believes, the SacBee removed the editorial. Fortunately, a blogger cut and pasted the whole thing on his blog. It begins:
Good morning, California voters. Do you feel better, now that you’ve gotten that out of your system?
You wanted to show the state’s politicians just how mad you are at them. And you did. Boy, did you ever.
Proposition 1A with its taxes and its spending limit? Too much of one and not enough of the other, you said (or was it the other way around), and voted it down. Never mind that the taxes go into effect anyway. You showed ‘em.
And it gets worse as it goes along. As I said, snarky and condescending. (Incidentally, within minutes of my Twitter posting, the SacBee started following me on Twitter.)
Liberal Brainwash
A fellow twitterer replied to the message, saying something sarcastic about my not caring if my state goes bankrupt. Such thinking is typical of liberals I know, and the brain-washing goes deep. This person apparently doesn’t realize that raising taxes is not the only way to avoid bankruptcy. The state can, among other things, reduce government programs or cut them altogether.
In my mind, the person’s programmed response conjured up an image of a disembodied brain with shackles around it. Liberal politicians have convinced otherwise rational people that taxing citizens to death is the only way to go. And every election cycle, Democrats get elected on the promise that they’ll raise taxes. Warped, counterintuitive thinking, but there you go. Sad, really.
LiarsRUs
Anyway, back to the SacBee. After a flood of negative comments about the negative editorial, the SacBee published a new one aimed at politicians instead of voters. An excerpt:
Good morning, members of the California Legislature. Good morning, Governor.
Feeling bruised and abused this morning? Well, you can’t say you didn’t see it coming. The polls have been saying for weeks that voters were going to do just what they did on Tuesday: Conclusively reject your slate on the ballot, Propositions 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D and 1E.
Today, on the morning after voters kicked around your best effort at fixing the state budget as if it were a deflated soccer ball, you face a decision.
You can blame the voters for reacting with uninformed and misplaced anger.
Amazing. It’s a complete turnaround. What gives? Here’s where the lies come it:
Many of the comments below refer to an article that was posted in error. That article was a draft prepared for internal discussion among members of The Bee’s editorial board. Such discussions are a routine part of our work, and frequently lead to editorials that are considerably different from writers’ first drafts.
Blatant lies. The SacBee published the first time the editorial it intended. It wasn’t an error. The paper backtracked after readers criticized the disrespectful screed, then published a new editorial to cover its butt.
But the damage has been done. That most mainstream newspapers are run by people who vote for tax-raising Democrats is not a surprise. That the SacBee really expects those same voters to believe the first editorial was a mere draft not meant for public consumption is not credible. In any case, we know what the paper thinks of people who vote to keep more of the money they earn.
Since the SacBee has so little regard for the people who keep its presses rolling, the people should make their displeasure known by canceling subscriptions and asking advertisers to halt the gravy train.
(More at Michelle Malkin and Patterico)
